The Scotland Yard officer in charge of the UK's post-September 11 anti-terrorist strategy yesterday expressed "grave concern" about the level of security at Heathrow airport.
Assistant commissioner David Veness, head of the force's specialist operations unit, said some London high streets had better security arrangements than the UK's number one airport and that the matter was being urgently considered by the home secretary, David Blunkett.
Two recent robberies at Heathrow had underlined problems at the airport, which is supposed to be on a heightened state of alert.
Last month, £4.6m worth of dollars and other currencies were stolen when two men breached security and managed to get "airside" - within the supposedly secure inner boundaries of the airport. On Monday two men seized a van laden with £2.2m in cash.
In a rare public criticism, Mr Veness said that Heathrow and other UK airports could not afford to be complacent and pointed to the US, where there has been a complete overhaul of arrangements since the hijackings that led to attacks on the World Trade Centre towers and the Pentagon.
Mr Venesss cited the proliferation of airside passes as a particular problem. The Met believes too many have been issued and it fears they are not being properly accounted for.
Both recent robberies are thought to have been pulled off with a degree of inside knowledge because the raiders used legitimate security passes.
Scores of companies working at the airport provide their employees, many of them temporary, with passes and are responsible for carrying out security checks on them.
Mr Veness said there seemed to be "a generous number of airside passes for the number of people employed" and that the regime for issuing and recovering them had to be looked at urgently.
He was also scathing about the level of cctv coverage on the Heathrow estate. Although there are a number of cameras at key entry points, there are few looking at other areas, he said. "We are very keen that the airside pass regime should be as effective as it conceivably can be and that cctv is as good at Heathrow as it is in many high streets in London," said Mr Veness.
"At the moment, many high streets have better cctv coverage than Heathrow. Cctv is very important ... we would not have caught the London nailbomber without it."
He also called for a debate to ensure the division of responsibilities in aviation security were "as sharp and effective as we can make it".
Mr Veness said it was wrong to distinguish between non-terrorist related crime and terrorism because a weakness in one showed a weakness in another.
At the moment, vetting of Heathrow staff is left in the hands of the hundreds of private companies who operate in and around Heathrow the airport.
Photo security passes are issued by the Heathrow identification centre run by British Airports Authority, but it only double checks some of the applications.
BAA wants the government to give it the right to check for applicants' criminal records.
Yesterday in the House of Commons, Labour's John McDonnell, whose Hayes and Harlington constituency covers part of the airport, said government needed "to reassure the travelling public and restore confidence of the travelling public in the security of our airports."
